Diagnoses
Over the past six months, Gurion has been diagnosed by four separate mental health professionals with the following disorders, in various combinations: Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Intermittent Explosive Disorder. It is my opinion that all but one of these diagnoses—Oppositional Defiant Disorder—are, to varying degrees, inappropriate. My reasons appear below.
CONDUCT DISORDER
Although Gurion does meet the criteria required for this diagnosis, he meets more of the criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder and, because the two cannot be applied to the same individual, I gravitate away from the former and toward the latter.
INTERMITTENT EXPLOSIVE DISORDER
Regardless of how much he would like to (despite my protests to the contrary, Gurion, who thoroughly enjoys using the word “explosion” to describe the internal phenomenon which occurs prior to and during his violent outbursts, insists he has IED), Gurion does not meet the criteria for Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Though he has been in a few exceptionally violent fistfights and destroyed some public property, he does not report having had the sense of being overtaken by violent/destructive impulses prior to or during these instances, nor has he ever expressed regret for the pain and destruction that any of his actions have brought about. I.e., no matter how inappropriate his reasons, Gurion always has reasons; he is always able to explain why, in a given situation, he has acted violently/destructively, and, furthermore, after the fact, he consistently feels that his actions were justified and proportionate. Thus, when he says, “I exploded,” he does not mean, “I lost control,” but rather, “I joyfully and violently took control.” When he says, “I got explosive,” he does not mean, “I was overtaken by violent impulses,” but rather, “I realized (gratefully) that I was willing and able to bring the violence/destruction I believed—and still believe—the situation at hand called for.”
ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER
It is spiteful, if not just shy of criminal, to diagnose Gurion with Antisocial Personality Disorder. In any case, it is ignorant. DSM IV makes it abundantly clear that one must be at least eighteen years old to be diagnosed with any personality disorder.
ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER
I take cautious exception to the ADHD diagnosis. Like Conduct Disorder, ADHD is another disorder for which Gurion meets the criteria (as well as one which, like IED, he would, owing to the verbal idiosyncrasies it permits him [e.g., “My A got D’d by {Monitor} Botha’s mouth-breathing.”], prefer to keep). However, as with Conduct Disorder, I do not believe it is an appropriate diagnosis. Gurion’s claims of easy distractability, his visible motor agitation (e.g., tapping feet, manual flux in the form of wild expressive gesturing and the drumming of tabletops and thighs while sitting, the pocketing and un-pocketing and re-pocketing of hands in sweatshirt pockets [accompanied by balling and un-balling of fists] while standing, constant pulling on the drawstrings of his hood, occasional chest-drumming and self-embraces that rapidly alternate with the dropping of hands to the sides), and his near-constant attempts to communicate with other students in the Cage (where total silence is the first rule) seem to be (all of these symptoms do) functional outside of the Cage.
To put it inversely: these behaviors are only dysfunctional insomuch as they are causes for disciplinary action inside the Cage, where the authority–subject dynamic is far different than that of a regular classroom, let alone a “real world” situation. Gurion’s high level of motor activity, for example, does not disturb or distract me in session, nor does it seem to disturb or distract the group in Group session. When I interviewed Gurion’s former Jewish-American School teachers (before enrolling at MLKJH, Gurion had never been in a Cage program), not one of them even mentioned his high level of motor activity, much less complained about its effect on their students. When I probed further, drawing examples (such as those mentioned above, parenthetically), one of the teachers commented, “He did bring a lot of passion to the bimah,” and another stated, “His excitement about his studies was surely palpable: his contributions to classroom discussion were unmatched and very inspiring to the other children.”
Because of the nature of the situations in which the aforementioned behaviors cause him trouble (again: situations in the Cage, where an atypically high level of authority is ever-present and exercised regularly [and, I sometimes think, excessively]), I believe that the symptoms of ADHD that the client manifests can be accounted for by his Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Finally, as demonstrated by his uses and misuses of clinical terminology (as shown under the present sub-rubric, as well as under the sub-rubric Intermittent Explosive Disorder), Gurion takes his diagnoses to heart, and, I believe, he does so to his detriment—affectionately embracing one’s symptoms is unlikely to aid in the cause of overcoming one’s disorder(s)—such that, although diagnosing him with ADHD would be “safe” from the C.Y.A. P.O.V., it would not be all too therapeutic.
Codeswitching
The “voice” in which this paper is written is not the voice I would use at dinner at my ma’s in Bridgeport. Nor is the “voice” you use when lecturing the class the same as the one you use in individual conferences. If you and I were to “get together over a beverage” some time, Professor Lakey, we would be unlikely to use any of the aforementioned “voices” while doing so. And if the beverage we decided to “get together over” were coffee, the “voices” we’d use would be different from those that we’d use were we to decide instead on beer. And if, while “having coffee,” we decided to “make it a girls’ night out” and “get beers,” the decision would likely have to do with the kinds of “voices” we found ourselves using while “having coffee.” These are all examples of codeswitching, and anyone can understand what I’m getting at when I use these examples, even if they’re unfamiliar with the term “codeswitching.” The reason anyone can understand codeswitching (which, btw, is usually explained by linguists as an outcome of assimilation, and by evolutionary psychologists as a sort of speakerly camouflage) is that everyone engages in codeswitching.******** It is normally a very powerful way to signify a group affiliation.
When Gurion codeswitches, however, it is harder, and maybe impossible, to understand because a) he switches codes at unlikely and unpredictable times (e.g., in the middle of a diadic conversation without tertiary witnesses), and b) the codes he engages are his own, i.e., though each code contains recognizable influences, not one of them, on the whole, signifies any single group affiliation, much less any affiliation with a group whose members are present at the time of the code’s engagement.
I have noted three distinct codes between which Gurion alternates when speaking and writing (for written examples, see attached “Detention Assignments”), each of which is exemplified by the quotations that appear earlier in this essay (under the rubrics Precursors and Warning Signals and Racio-Ethnic Background):
A highly refined, organized, and even scholarly English rife with dialectic that is vocalized at breakneck pace, as if Gurion is highly irritated.
A syntactically complicated, analytical style that makes use of both clinical and idiolectic vocabulary, is often peppered with biblical references, and is vocalized either a) slowly, explanatorily/revelatorily, as if Gurion were soliloquizing by the footlights; or b) at the aforementioned breakneck pace.
A clipped manner of speaking that mixes the dialectical speech and vocabulary of #1 with the vocabulary of #2, while also incorporating the slang and imperative tonality of a street-thug. This code is vocalized in any number of ways, often in as many as three or four within the span of a single utterance.
The peculiarity of the above-described styles and the times when Gurion chooses to engage them allow us three possible explanations for Gurion’s codeswitching: 1) Gurion is completely unaware that he codeswitches, which would indicate that his codeswitching is symptomatic of an undiagnosed cognitive diso
rder; 2) his codeswitching is highly purposeful and totally conscious, indicating that Gurion either a) knows the reasons for his codeswitching are inscrutable to listeners, which, if this is the case, would indicate that Gurion aspires to inscrutability; or b) is attempting to appear unaware (as in 1)) of what he’s doing (codeswitching); or 3) is experimenting with a variety of codes in order to inspire in his audience the alternating impressions of both 2a and 2b so that he may, while indicating, via his verbal behavior, a capacity to understand wildly complicated ideas, simultaneously maintain enough of a childlike persona to “charm” his audience so that he might more easily “get away with” a larger portion of his more “childlike” or “mischievous” (read: antisocial) behavior (verbal and non-).
Regardless of what Gurion’s codeswitching might indicate at any given moment, what’s most notable is that whichever code he happens to be using is nearly as infectious/contagious as his emotional state. I.e., when Gurion codeswitches, those members of Group who belong to the Maccabeean Collective do so with him (and so, I find, do I). In light of his dominant personality (alternately: his charisma), it is not surprising to discover that changes in his behavior (verbal or otherwise) would elicit (at least to some degree) similar changes in the behavior of those around him, nor is it surprising that when Gurion speaks thuggishly, those around him speak thuggishly (cursing often begats cursing), but what is surprising, is that members of the Maccabbean Collective not only engage a more scholarly code when Gurion does, but they engage it convincingly, i.e. they don’t just adopt Gurion’s lexicon (which adoption could certainly be “faked,” i.e., just because someone pronounces a word doesn’t mean they understand what it signifies), but his syntax (unfakably analytic).
In sum, Gurion’s codeswitching behavior merits further, closer attention, and I hope that you, Professor Lakey, given your expertise in linguistics, will help guide me more closely through the process of further attending it.
Recommendations
Gurion should remain in the Cage program indefinitely, and be permitted leave of the Cage only when attending state-mandated Physical Education, Lunch/Recess (at the discretion of Monitor Botha), weekly group therapy, and Assembly (again, at the discretion of Monitor Botha). Although it seems, as I’ve noted throughout this paper, that many, if not most, of Gurion’s disruptive behaviors are exacerbated by the Cage program dynamic, his violent behaviors (e.g., the hallway incident with K.M.) may or may not be. That is to say that there is no telling whether or not Gurion would cease assaulting other students if he were a member of the regular student body. It may be the case, as many of his former teachers claim, that Gurion is by nature an ideal student who, at one time, rarely, if ever, acted out; and it may be the case that his troubling record, which appears to describe a dangerous and even doomed young boy, only reflects a combination of a) unlikely circumstances of which Gurion has been a victim and b) mistakes made by administrators in response to these unlikely circumstances. On the other hand, it may be that Gurion, once an ideal student, has become—via the aforementioned combination of unlikely circumstances and mistakes made in response—the dangerous and even doomed boy indicated by his record. It may be that, were he admitted into regular classrooms, he would exert bodily harm on other children at a similar, if not—Cage restraints lifted—higher, rate. CYA POV aside, that is not a risk which a conscientious social worker can take.
Owing to Recommendation 1, Gurion should be re-promoted to Grade 7, the work of which is better suited to his intellectual abilities than that of Grade 5. Whether or not Gurion’s disruptive and violent behaviors have historically resulted from the social awkwardness of being surrounded by students two-to-three years his senior is irrelevant as long as Gurion is in the Cage program, where 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-graders are mixed together willy-nilly, anyway.
In addition to twice-weekly Group Therapy, Gurion should attend once-weekly individual Therapy with me, Sandra Billings, Student Social Work Intern. His treatment plan should focus primarily on anger-management and the prevention of the onset of Antisocial Personality Disorder via psychodynamic methods we’ve been studying in your (Professor Lakey’s!) class.
Like so many other students in the Cage, Gurion should henceforth be disciplined according to what is unofficially termed the “modified” STEP System. If this exception is not made and Gurion continues to behave as he has over the course of the probational/observational period, he will be expelled from Aptakisic within two days. If he is expelled, we cannot help him.
Regarding the attached detention assignments (about which, in obedience to this essay’s page limit, hardly anything has been said): Gurion should be permitted to continue using them as he has in the attached examples—as an aid to fantasy and a tool for venting.
Detention ended at 4:35, but the buses wouldn’t leave until 4:50, in case band and the teams got out of practice late. Usually we’d wait on the curb of the bus circle playing slapslap even if the buses were there already, which they were that day, but it started raining right after we came outside, and all my friends raced. I didn’t like to get rained on either, especially not without a hood in November, but I’d known some girls who didn’t mind getting rained on, and even liked it, and I always enjoyed how those girls would stroll in the rain like it was the cleanest, nicest blessing, and how they’d sometimes stop and face the sky, winking. I had never seen June in the rain, but I thought she would be that kind of girl, and that kind of girl made fun of you when you ran from the rain, so I walked slow to Bus 3, and even paused a couple times to look at the clouds. I didn’t know if June was watching me, just that revolving my head to check would be a mistake if she was, but Vincie, who was sitting on the blocky stairway in the bus and breathing heavy from how he’d sprinted to get there, was staring straight at my face and saying, “You sexy nature boy! You’re such a dreamy—” when cherry dum-dum juice got swallowed down his wrong passage and he choked a little and raised his hands and coughed. Marnie the heavy bus-driver slapped his back. Her cheeks and neck-meat shook and flapped and I looked away.
The value of the wheel-well seats on the bus was different from school to school. At Schechter and Northside Hebrew Day, getting a wheel-well seat was prized, but at Martin Luther King Middle no one cared, and at Aptakisic it was as generally dreaded as sitting bitch in a compact between a pair of bickering people who spit. The argument against the wheel-well seat was that the hump prevented you from stretching your legs, but—maybe because I went to Schechter first—the hump, to me, meant less a lack of leg-room than a bonus of floor, so I always preferred a wheel-well seat. It is true that you had to sit with your knees at the height of your neck, but at the same time, if you leaned back, you could push your knees against the seat in front of you while resting your feet atop the hump’s peak, which gave you a warm, protected feeling that you could not get in a regular schoolbus seat, unless maybe you were very tall. To have just been rained on at the end of a schoolday pleasantly boosted this fortified feeling, and that afternoon, I got sleepy fast.
Vincie sat across the aisle from me, spreading a hole in his seatback’s vinyl with his thumbs. He pulled a piece of foam out. He said, “You ever set this stuff on fire? It smells.”
I said, When you were coughing just now—
“Stop being so fucken quiet. I can’t hear you.”
I said, When Marnie was slapping you, your hand didn’t jump to your eye.
He said, “So what?”
I said, Don’t act sensitive—can you fight Thai-style?
He said, “Nakamook showed me a little.”
I said, Get in the stance.
Vincie shoved the foam back in the hole, then stood bent in the aisle and held his fists fingers-forward at forehead-level.
I slapped my thigh loudly. Then I slapped the seat loudly. Then I yelled Flinch! at him.
He said, “That’s not cool, Gurion.”
I said, When it’s above your eye, your hand doesn’t jump to your eye.
&nb
sp; He said, “Really?”
I said, Flinch!
It didn’t jump.
Vincie said, “I’m cured!”